The Role and Value of Chaplains in an Australian Ambulance Service: A Comparative Study of Chaplain and Paramedic Perspectives

Abstract

Chaplains are embedded in several ambulance services across Australia, however as Australia’s religiosity is currently in decline and questions are being asked about retaining chaplains, little is actually known about their role and value within Ambulance services. The aim of this paper is to present the key findings from interviews with chaplains about their role and value of being ambulance chaplains. These findings are then compared with those of paramedics derived from an earlier phase of this study. Thirteen chaplains participated in semi-structured interviews, and data were analysed using framework analysis. The results indicated that ambulance chaplains provided paramedic-centred emotional and spiritual care through proactively and reactively supporting paramedics in their work. Chaplains saw value in their relational approach which facilitated trust and access, did not seek to ‘fix’ or diagnose but instead offered physical and emotional presence, and promoted supportive conversations. Chaplains and paramedics valued operationally trained and equipped ambulance chaplains who provided a relational, around the clock, ‘frontline’ staff support presence in paramedic workplaces, regardless of the paramedic’s personal religious/spiritual beliefs.

The Impact of Faith-Based Pastoral Care in Decreasingly Religious Contexts: The Australian Chaplaincy Advantage in Critical Environments

“…Importantly, in the interviewed sample of 17 paramedics only three identified as religious, yet 16 of the 17 respondents thought faith-based chaplains added value to their organization even if they had not initially understood their role. The understanding that faith-based chaplains were appreciated was supported by chaplains themselves in follow-up research (Tunks Leach et al, 2022 ). It appeared, however, that the biggest barrier for personnel utilizing faith-based chaplains was uncertainty about their role, however, once used, faith-based chaplains were greatly appreciated for their care.…”

Towards a Holistic Model of Care for Moral Injury: An Australian and New Zealand Investigation into the Role of Police Chaplains in Supporting Police Members following exposure to Moral Transgression

“…Through facilitating confidentiality, external health service providers may enable trust. This may also be true for chaplains who use approaches which aim to facilitate trust (Tunks Leach et al, 2023 ). This was supported by the current findings whereby police felt that chaplains were trusting, understanding, and made police feel cared for.…”